Well I couldn’t let a week go without blogging about something, so I figured I would just sort of check in and let you know where I’m at. I know I missed Wicked Wednesday, I promise to bring it back next week.

First of all, I am continuing to edit book 3 of the wolves – have I said what the title of that is? I’m sure I have – well, in case I haven’t it is THE HOWL OF THUNDER – I guess I can stop calling it book 3. I am hoping to make a huge dent in it this weekend as I don’t have anything planned except cleaning out my closet and tidying up my bathroom (woohoo – yeah that’s sarcasm). I will be blasting music from my Amazon Echo (providing Alexa doesn’t laugh at me – creepy) and dancing my way through my chores before immersing myself in Croatia and Italy with the ladies and gents of the Benandanti.

On the research front, if you follow me on Facebook and really you should (click the link) I posted a pic of the book I’m currently researching from. But if you don’t follow me, here it is:

I am researching Regency England for my next series. The book now is filled with pink highlight and lots of small tags – it looks like a porcupine LOL. I am a HUGE fan of Historical Romance and I don’t really ever write it, unless you count the copious amounts of Fan Fiction I’ve written which takes in the 1860’s. Of course 1860’s American West is very different from 1812ish England so I need to sit and dedicate myself to learning as much as I can about it. I LOVE research, I really do. So if the editing is going a little slower than I’d like it’s because I am also trying to research the next series which I will then alternate writing between the wolves.

I am very excited about the new series which I hope means that I will write it a lot faster than I have in the past. Part of my prewriting ritual also consists of finding who the characters are and looking for that perfect inspiration for them. That means tons of time spent on the net searching for pictures and when I know that I want to write 3 books that means 3 sets of couples and the various people around them. Of course I don’t search for pics for EVERYBODY because that’s just tooooo much, well I could, but I really need to do other stuff too. However, it means pinning to Pinterest! Right now, because the books aren’t written, I have my boards private, but they are full of handsome men and pretty women all ready to inspire me to write their stories. You can see some of my other inspiration boards right now if you click the link (there’s also tons of other stuff I like – go see how random I can be).

Part of researching means I’ll have to get my World Bible together – it’s a binder filled with Character Notes, ideas, research items, etc. It’s one of the best things ever! My Benandanti bible has everything I need to know in there including – the end of the series. Of course a lot of what I wrote in there initially has changed soooo who can say if the ending will remain?

This also means that I need to find titles, I am one of those weird writers who titles my stories before writing them and woe to me if I can’t find a title, because I can’t write. It’s not that I refuse to write, it is I just cannot do it. I drift and my concentration is nonexistent. I spent a large chunk of my free time this week trying to find not only a series title for the regency stories, but book titles as well. I am TERRIBLE at this, it is the bane of my existence – well this and writing query letters and submitting – but that’s all post writing when the hard part is done, amiright?

A friend said titles are the gateway drug to your story, isn’t that great? And she’s right (And she’s a writer, Reina Torres go read her, seriously, she’s GOOD). I think that’s why I put so much pressure on myself to get the perfect one – well perfect for me anyway. I can’t just start writing without a title, how am I supposed to save it? Regency 1, that just will not do, especially since I save chapter by chapter as well as the story as a whole so Regency 1 could mean chapter 1 and then what would I do, Regency 1 1? Regency Book 1 Chap 1? It’s just odd to me, so I’d rather have a title – ex. Howl of Thunder is saved as HOT (Heh) and HOT1, HOT2 … see? Sometimes I think if I just write it then maybe something in the book will inspire a title, but we go back to that small problem of not being able to write it without a title, see? Yeah, it’s weird.

Luckily, I’ve managed to find that elusive Series title AND the book titles for all three stories and while one may change, I am happy with it for now and that’s all I need to continue on.

Boy, this post has run longer than I thought – babble babble on that’s me.